After 10 days of rain (yes, I'm counting), the sun finally broke through a few times today. This is the evening sky (after a little hail); but the clouds were broken when we woke this morning and then in the afternoon, the sky over west Anchorage was clear. We've had a cool and cloudy summer, but the last 10 days have finally delivered all the rain that we incorrectly felt that we were getting. We're still down on moisture for the year, but already ahead for the month.
When I say it has rained the last 10 days, that's not been constant. But the sky has been cloudy and if it's not raining now, wait 20 minutes and it probably will be. OnThursday, I decided to ride my bike home from work. From my office downtown (which is roughly in the northwest corner of Anchorage), I could see the mountain slopes behind my house on the southeast side. The clouds were high and it hadn't rained all afternoon, so I thought I had a pretty good shot at making the 12 miles without any precipitation. I talked to Paul at about 5:45 to let him know my plan and to confirm the weather at home. He said it started raining 5 minutes after he hung up. The rain hit me at about mile 4 and continued to soak me with a steady downpour to within a few miles of home. I couldn't see the mountains the entire trip.
The weather today was even more wacky and changeable. Sun peaking through this morning but strong winds. The weather radio predicted gusts of 35 mph, and the birch trees often bent to the point I thought they'd break. By late morning a low cloud was engulfing west Anchorage and heading rapidly toward our house.* By noon it was pouring. Then two hours later, clearing skies on the west side had us all singing again. After running some errands, I came home thinking I could harvest some vegetables and take care of some weeds and slugs (which have loved this weather). It started to rain almost immediately. At 6:20, the sun was shining so I headed out to pick raspberries and strawberries. At 7:20, a heavy rain mixed with hail chased me in. I took this photo from the deck around 8:30.
Tomorrow morning we head out to Prince William Sound, one of the wettest places in this part of Alaska. And it's having a particularly wet summer. A kayaking trip there last year inspired us to buy heavy duty rain gear. We've rented a cabin for 3 days and our drybags have 3 games, 1 book of hard Sudokus, and 2 long novels, just in case.
* We're at about 800 feet on the east/mountain side and Cook Inlet and sea level are on the east side. Our house faces west-northwest, so we've got a decent view of the west side of town from our deck.
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